The typical carry-out meal consists of three items: a sandwich product that has been packaged in a clamshell-type, foamed plastic enclosure; a beverage contained in a plastic-coated paper cup with a plastic lid; and french fries jumbled into a small, open-top paper sack. According to usual practice in fast-food restaurants, a selection of these items is collected in a suitably sized paper bag for delivery to the customer. The paper bag is itself specifically arranged to have an oblong or rectangular bottom so that the beverage cups can be placed into the bag first with reasonable assurance of staying upright and avoiding spillage after insertion of the remaining items and until consumption of the food is begun.
A common problem with purveying this sort of meal resides in a leakage or spillage of the beverage causing disintegration of the paper bag and scattering of its contents with attendant mess. Despite the notoriously low wet-strength of paper, wetproof plastic film bags have not replaced paper bags for carry-out meals because, heretofore, plastic film bags could not be economically fashioned with flat bottoms or with other means for affording a stable, upright positioning of the beverage cups.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved flexible film sack for the packaged items of a carry-out meal.
Another general object of the invention is to provide a low-cost, wetproof sack for carry-out meal items.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a flexible, plastic film sack with a stabilizing structure for beverage cups and with a spill-confinement reservoir.
These and other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following descriptions.